In general, personal care articles should comfortably fit the body of a wearer. Conventional personal care articles are made using materials for e.g. an outer cover and a bodyside liner, thus to make a substrate which is generally non-stretchable, or stretchable only to a limited degree such as up to no more than about 50%. Thus, the primary substrate materials, from which such personal care articles are made, lack resilient stretch characteristics which are desired at the waist and at the leg openings. Accordingly, conventional personal care articles generally have resiliently stretchable waist elastic elements secured about the waistbands of the articles. Likewise, personal care particles generally have leg elastic elements disposed at opposing sides of the crotch portion adjacent leg cutouts. Such waist elastics elements and leg elastics elements are used to provide desired levels of extensibility and retractability to the personal care articles in the waistband region, and in the crotch portion, respectively.
When, as in the personal care articles of the invention, one or more of the materials used to make the outer cover and the bodyside liner is resiliently stretchable greater than 50%, e.g. up to at least 300%, it is still desirable to provide the same amounts for stretch, resistance to stretch, and resilience, as are provided for in conventional personal care articles. Thus, while resilient stretchability is desired in the waist and leg areas, too much stretch, or too little resistance to stretch, are no more acceptable than too little stretch or too much resistance to stretch. Accordingly, where the amount of stretch is greater than desired, or where the resistance to stretch is less than desired, in e.g. a stretchable outer cover or a stretchable bodyside liner, suitable modifications to the respective outer cover or bodyside liner should be made in order to provide the desired level of stretchability, and resistance to stretch.